Sorted Tales
by RenaRoo
Summary: [Fluff Week] With Theta, North has some trouble sleeping, but he thinks he might have a solution to the problem after all.


anonymous pompted: North reading Theta bedtime stories

I absolutely ADORE the relationships between AI and their implantees (I know, so shocking, who could have possibly guessed) so this was a prompt RIGHT up my alley. I am so tickled to get it.

It should also be known that, like any good Kentucky born-and-raised girl, I am a fan of Jack Tales. And I think people should look them up if thy ever get curious. It's a favorite Oral Tradition. So, of course, I had to imagine what hundreds of years in the future would change about them…

Red vs Blue and related properties © Rooste Teeth  
story © RenaRoo

 **Sorted Tales**

The time rolled over before his eyes again and left North blinking at the little electric clock by his bedside.

4 AM shined brightly across his eyes and North gave it the sort of soft, sad smile he would give if it was Theta's projection right in front of him.

It wasn't, of course, because North rarely wore his armor to bed if his muscles didn't utterly protest changing into clothes and it wasn't as if North's shirt and underwear had the ability to project a hologram. But Theta was there, nestled warmly in the back of his mind, waiting expectantly for North's upset.

It didn't take much imagination for North to 'see' Theta in front of him when the little AI's presence was so good at making itself known.

 _I'm sorry,_ Theta said like a whisper. _You can pull me._

"You don't want that," North said softly.

 _But you can still do it,_ Theta pointed out. And if the shared thought was accented by a squeaky break in Theta's voice, North couldn't be sure how much of it was the AI and how much of it was North simply projecting.

Sharing a mind was a funny thing like that.

"Do you think bad things can happen to you when you're pulled?" North asked, turning away from the clock since the time was disturbing Theta so much.

 _Yes,_ Theta hummed confidently to answer.

"Do you know _what_ bad things could happen?" North continued to press, decidedly going to he logical attempt to overcome this overwhelming fear.

If possible, Theta shrunk more into the confides of North's mind.

For a fragment of _trust_ , Theta did that a lot. Shrunk back in fear and intimidation and worry. And while it might seem to some that shrinking back was a way of the AI to release some of that bond between their synapses, North found it to be far more painful and jarring than the few times Theta 'yelled.'

Yelling was an experience North never really worried about with Theta. The one time he had experienced it – that overwhelming of Theta's voice over his own, the drowning of his nerves and reactions until it was _just_ the AI in there and North's own thoughts felt drowned in the void – was in a shared yell with all the others who were implanted. And Theta had never come close to it since.

But Theta shriveled in North's mind a lot, clinging to his head space while raking himself over the fires.

It was its own sort of disturbance and pain.

 _I don't know,_ Theta finally admitted. _It's just… scary…_

"And you're already an anxious little guy, I know," North nodded. "So let's not get too worried about it. Instead… let's just relax. Think about something together."

 _I'd like to help you go to sleep,_ Theta said miserably, knowing his constant hum of activity was the exact cause of the insomnia to begin with.

Sighing at their predicament, North stared at the ceiling, drumming his fingers against his abs before remembering an old trick.

"Theta, did anyone ever tell you bedtime stories?" North asked softly.

 _No?_ Theta questioned. The _who would_ was left in the air.

"Oh, well, then. Silly on me for not trying the ol' North Family Secret on you, then," he chuckled as he laid his head back into his pillow and looked at the soft glow of light from the alarm clock as it reflected on the ceiling. "It's how South and I used to be put to sleep. See, with twins, when they're younger, they usually have a bad habit of not sleeping at the same time. Used to drive our parents crazy. So. My ol' man used to put us in our car seats and take us driving around the neighborhood."

 _Can we try that?_ Theta asked almost excitedly.

"Well, I can get York to open Wash's locker and we'll try riding around on his skateboard sometime. I think that's as close to driving as we'll get _on_ the ship," North offered.

 _I like skateboards,_ Theta said with a bounce in his voice.

"I know you do," North replied with a soft chuckle. "In any case… we'd drive around and if we were _really_ fighting sleep, our parents would start to tell us stories. Old stories. Stories that stretch back so far it's hard to tell where they come from."

He could almost _see_ Theta's wide eyed blink. _Are they real?_

No. "Maybe," North said in good humor. "My favorites were always about Jack."

 _Jack?_

 _"_ Well, now I _have_ to tell you about Jack," North said with a wave of his hands. "You asked for it."

 _I did?_ Theta asked wobbly. But he was interested, hooked in by North's gentle disposition as always. _Oh, okay. I guess I did. Please tell me more about Jack, North! Especially if he's your favorite._

"Since you're so interested," North continued, neglecting that he hardly remembered any of the others to begin with, "As far as anyone knows, Jack started out on Reach. Just a regular colony boy, but he had dreams of reaching the moon."

 _What a low goal when there are spaceships that can take you to different planets,_ Theta giggled.

"That was the thing," North smirked. "He was afraid of flying."

 _That's so silly._

"Not to Jack it wasn't," North continued. "That's the thing about fears, though. What's silly to some means the world to someone else. And as much as others might've judged Jack for his fears, he still didn't want to fly. And no one was going to make him."

 _I_ guess _I can understand that,_ Theta said reluctantly. _But how was he going to get to the moon if he couldn't fly?_

"It was a challenge, for sure," North acknowledged. "But fortunately for him, one day when his mother sent him to the market to sell the last of their dehydrated crops, an alien came across Jack and offered to take all the crops off his hands in exchange for a very special, very rare alien bean."

There was a curious hum of Theta running short calculations before the AI announced, _That doesn't make_ any _sense._

"That's what Jack's mother thought when he came home with no money but a strange bean!" North snickered.

 _Was she mad?_

"Pissed," North answered. "So mad she threw the bean out the window."

Theta shifted back, expanded some more into the interface. _What happened after she threw it out?_

"It began growing."

 _That_ REALLY _doesn't make any sense, North. What do you mean? Like over the next few weeks?_

"Nope, right then," North replied firmly.

 _Nooooooorth…_

"It was a _special_ alien bean, Theta," North continued. "And not only did it immediately begin to grow, but by the time Jack and his mom looked out the window, the stalk was wider than a skyscraper, and it reached so high that it broke through the clouds, it went through the sky so far they couldn't see the top of it."

 _This is impossible,_ Theta was laughing so hard it was beginning to make North laugh as well.

"And as they waited to figure out what to do, because no plasma blade could cut through it, they realized that the night was going on too long," North continued. "Turns out, the moon got caught in the beanstalk, tangled up there. And if they wanted the night to end, they were going to need someone to climb up and let the moon free."

Theta was rolling in giggles. _This isn't true! None of it's true, North, take it all back._

"It's my favorite," North defended, eyes drifting closed. " _You_ take it back."

There was a shrill, childish giggle in the back of North's throat as Theta repeated tearfully _Beanstalk tangled in the moon._

Theta's hum for the first time that night eased back, became an even rolling pattern in the back of North's head. Relaxed, content. Soothing, even.

 _I think it's my favorite story, too, North,_ Theta whispered so quietly even North hardly heard it.

"I love it," North hummed himself.

 _Good night, North._

"Good night, Theta."


End file.
